Depression of nonlinearity in decaying isotropic turbulence

Simulations of decaying isotropic Navier–Stokes turbulence exhibit depression of the normalized mean-square nonlinear term to 57% of the value for a Gaussianly distributed velocity field with the same instantaneous velocity spectrum. Similar depression is found for dynamical models with random coupling coefficients (modified Betchov models). This suggests that the depression is dynamically generic rather than specifically driven by alignment of velocity and vorticity.